Electromagnetic engine

ABSTRACT

An electromagnetic engine is disclosed. The engine has a rotational voltage power distributor, an air-cooled circular head having fixed electromagnets, an air-cooled engine block with crankshaft and an engine pan having a cooler blower system. The engine block contains electromagnetic pistons. The engine utilizes magnetic attraction and repulsion, in proper timed sequence, of the fixed electromagnets in the circular head and the electromagnetic pistons to drive the crankshaft.

United States Patent Erdoesy ELECTROMAGNETIC ENGINE [72] .Inventor:Everett W. Erdoesy, Osprey, Fla.

[73] Assignee: Gretha M. Erdoesy, Osprey, Fla. a

part interest [22] Filed: May 27, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 147,544

1521 Us. c1. ..310/24, 310/16, 310/27, 310/3s,31s/11s,31s/127 [511 1111.c1. .110211 7/06 58 Field of Search ..310/1s, 16, 20 24, 310/27, 31-35,313/115, 127, 128, 131, 134; 335/268 [56] References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS 1,356,290 10/1920 Kellum ..310/24 x 1451 Sept. 26, 1972 Ford310/24 Dremel ..3l0/16 ux Primary Examiner-J. V. Truhe AssistantExaminer-B. A. Reynolds Attorney-Kimmel, Crowell & Weaver [5 7] ABSTRACTAn electromagnetic engine is disclosed. The engine has a rotationalvoltage power distributor, an aircooled circular head having fixedelectromagnets, an air-cooled engine block with crankshaft and an enginepan having a cooler blower system. The engine block containselectromagnetic pistons. The engine utilizes magnetic attraction andrepulsion, in propertimed sequence, of the fixed electromagnets in thecircular head and the electromagnetic pistons to drive the crankshaft.

15 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures PATNTEUsEP2s I972 SHEET 1 [IF 2 FIG. 3

INVENTOR.

EVERETT W E/EDOESV FIG. 1

W,M 8 MW A 7' TORNE VS PATENTED W SHEET 2 [IF 2 llllllulllb I 7ClNVENTO/Z EVERETT W ERDOESY K MW A T TORNEYS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to reciprocating engines and more specifically toan electromagnetic reciprocating engine.

Electromagnetic reciprocating engines are known in the art. Generallysuch prior art systems utilize what are essentially solenoids to drivethe crankshaft. One such engine is described in U. S. Pat. No.1,436,245. In this patented engine, the cylinders are surrounded bycoils. These coils together with the associated piston form a solenoid.The coils are sequentially energized thereby sequentially drawing thepistons into the cylinders.

The reciprocating electromagnetic engine of this invention does not usethis solenoid type piston arrangement and does not therefore require theapparatus necessary to sequentially energize and de-energize a pluralityof coils. Instead of using the principle of the attraction of a solenoidplunger into its energized coil,

the engine of this invention utilizes the fact that like magnetic polesrepel each other and unlike magnetic poles attract each other to drive acrankshaft.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The electromagnetic engine of this inventioncomprises a rotating voltage power distributor, a rotating head thatcontains a plurality of fixed electromagnets, an air-cooled engine blockthat houses a plurality of electromagnetic pistons, a crankshaft coupledto said pistons and an engine pan containing a cooling blower. Thecylinder walls within the engine block are non-circular and contain aconductive sleeve or strip to provide energization voltage to theelectromagnetic pistons via carbon brushes. The block contains coolingchannels. Self sealing bearings, with cooling fins, are provided for anumber of the engine components.

The head is rotated by a gearing arrangement so that the fixedelectromagnets are sequentially brought in position over theelectromagnetic pistons. The orientation of the magnetic poles of agiven fixed electromagnet is reversed from the orientation of themagnetic poles of the fixed electromagnets following and preceding thatelectromagnet so that each piston is sequentially subjected to oppositepoles. That is when a given piston sees a north pole it will next see asouth pole and then a north pole and so on. The pistons have their polesoriented such that the pistons are sequentially attracted and repelledby the fixed electromagnet in the head. The sequential attraction andrepelling of the electromagnetic pistons by the fixed electromagnetsprovides the power to drive the crankshaft or in other words the engineof this invention converts electromagnetic energy to mechanical energyby means of a crankshaft driven by electromagnetic pistons. No fuel suchas gasoline is needed to run the engine of this invention. Electricityin effect is the engine fuel.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a reciprocatingengine.

It is another object of this invention to provide an electromagneticengine.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an air-cooledelectromagnetic engine.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a means forconverting electromagnetic energy to mechanical energy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The above mentioned and other objectsof the invention will become apparent from the following detaileddescription when read in conjunction with the annexed drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of a preferred embodiment of the inventionwith the parts separated to more clearly show the construction;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the engine of FIG. 1 with all the partsproperly noted;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the engine of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the voltage distributor of the invention withthe distributor cover removed;

FIG. 5 is a side view of the circular head of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a side view showing the engine block and the engine head anddistributor shaft of the invention;

FIG. 7a is a top view of a cylinder and piston of the invention;

FIG. 7b is a side view of the wrist pin and connecting rod with theassociated bearings;

FIG. 7c is a cross section of a piston showing the magnetic holder andbrushes; and

FIG. 8 is a top view of the engine block of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The engine of this invention basicallycomprises, as clearly shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, a voltage distributor1, a circular head 3, an engine block 5, a crankshaft 7 and a pan 9.

Voltage distributor 1 is cylindrical shaped and has a flange l9 and acover 21. Flange 19 is used to secure distributor 1 to circular head 3by means of the studs 27 as clearly shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. Of courseany suitable means other than the studs 27 could be used to securevoltage distributor 1 to head 3.

As shown in FIG. 4, voltage distributor 1 contains the four brushes 23that are held in position by brush holders fabricated as part ofdistributor 1. Brushes 23 are spaced apart around a circle formed by acircular opening 37 through the center of distributor 1. As will beapparent later this opening 37 accommodates a shaft 36 that containsconductor strips 25 that contact with brushes 23.

Circular head 3 comprises the two integrally fabricated cylindricalsections 13 and 29 (FIGS. 2 and 3). Section 13 of head 3 is larger indiameter than section 29. A gear 17 is formed along the entirecircumference of the lower edge of section 13. A hole having a bearing35 is cut through the center of head 3 to accommodate shaft 36. As willbecome apparent, head 3 rotates on shaft 36 and, of course, bearing 35provides a low friction surface to permit head 3 to rotate freely.

Circular head 3 contains the four chambers 39 (FIG. 1) that house theelectromagnets 15. Electromagnets 15 are spaced 90 apart along thecircumference of head 3 and are secured in their chambers by anysuitable means. Electromagnets 15 do not move relative to head 3. Asmore clearly shown in FIG. 5, chambers 39 are cylindrical shaped exceptat their lower end where the cylinder wall flares outward at an angle ofapproximately 30 from the horizontal as indicated by the numeral 33. Thereason for the flared ends will be apparent later.

Power for electromagnets 15 is obtained from brushes 23. Brushes 23 andelectromagnets 15 are electrically connected by means of the wires 11.The holes 31 in distributor cover 21 provide access to brushes 23 forwires 11.

Engine block is also cylindrical in shape and contains a hole 34 in thecenter to accommodate shaft 36. Block 5 contains a pair of non-circularcylinders 4 each of which contains an electromagnetic piston 6. The toppart of the circular portion of cylinder 4 flares outwardly at an angleof 30 as indicated at 16 in FIG. 6. While FIG. 6 is a side view ofengine block 5 some of the dashed lines have been omitted for purposesof clarity. This 30 flare 16in cylinders 4 matches the 30 flare in theelectromagnet chambers. Similarly, the bottom of the circular part ofcylinders 4 has a 60 flare as indicated at 18.

In addition to the cylinders 4, block 5 has a pair of air-cooling holes32 cut through the block as shown in FIG. 8. These holes 32 provide forinternal cooling of the block. The gear 14 turns on pin 54 which isaffixed to block 5.

Each of the cylinders 4 contains an electromagnetic piston 6. Thestructural details of these pistons is clearly shown in FIGS. 7a 7c.Referring to these figures, piston 6 comprises a wrist pin 24, brushes22 with their associated brush holders, an electromagnet 50, andconnecting rod 40. Electromagnet 50 is held in a holder 30 and held inplace by means of pins 52, one of which is shown in FIG. 7a. A pin 52 isprovided with each of the sections 60, 61, 62 of magnet holder 30. Wristpin 24 and connecting rod 40 are provided with self sealing bearing 26.The bearings have heat fins 28 to assist in dissipating the heat.Voltage to the electromagnets 50 is applied by means of the brushes 22.Brushes 22 are in contact with conductive strips 20 provided inside thecylinder 4 at the end of each of the brushes. Power is applied to theseconductive strips 20 and picked off by brushes 22 to energizeelectromagnets 50. Conductive strips 20 of course run along the entirelength of the cylinder.

Crankshaft 7 is essentially a conventional crankshaft having the end ofeach connecting rod 40 connected thereto as shown in FIG. 1. A flywheel10 is connected to one end of crankshaft 7 and the gear 12 which mesheswith and drives gear 14 is connected to the other end of crankshaft 7.Of course any other device that would be driven by the engine wouldobtain its power from crankshaft 7 by a gearing arrangement or suitablecoupling.

The pan 9 is located directly below the crankshaft. Pan 9 contains a fan42 and fan motor 44. Motor 44 is an electric motor and is used to drivefan 42 to provide cooling for the engine. The air from the fan bladewill circulate up through the cooling holes 32 to cool block 5. The airpassing through holes 32 will of course reach head 3 and help cool thehead. The air from the fan will also pass up around the pistons and coolthe pistons. In this respect note that cylinders 4 are of such size thatonly the brushes touch the conductive strips affixed to the cylinderwalls. Thus the major part of a piston 6 does not touch the walls of itscylinder. This, of course, eliminates the friction that would otherwiseoccur if a large part of piston 6 rubbed against the walls of cylinders4 and the space between the cylinder and piston provides a passage wayfor the cooling air.

The shaft 36 is cylindrical shaped and is secured to block 5 asindicated in FIG. 6. Shaft 36 is hollow having the hollowed out area 38running the length of the shaft. Two conductive strips 25 are located atthe top of the shaft. Head 3 is slipped over the shaft 36 as shown inFIGS. 1, 2 and 3. Head 3 is free to rotate on shaft 36. The upper partof shaft 36 protrudes into voltage distributor 1 such that brushes 23are in contact with the conductive strips 25.

Power for the electromagnets is brought into the engine at theelectrical connector 46 on pan 9. The power is brought from electricalconnector 46 up through the hollow center 38 of shaft 36 to providevoltage on contacts 25 for energizing electromagnets 15. Any suitablewire or cable can be used to carry the voltage through shaft 36 tocontacts 25. The voltage at electrical connector 46 is also applied toconductive strips 20 by any suitable means to provide power for theenergization of electromagnetic pistons 6. The actual wiring of contacts25 and conductive strips 20 is not shown in the drawing since suchwiring would be conventional.

Now that the structural details of the invention have been described,the operation of the engine will be described. Assume that the engine isrunning and, therefore, electricity is applied to all theelectromagnets. When the engine is running, head 3 rotates since it isbeing driven by means of gear 14 which is driven by gear 12 which isattached to crankshaft 7. As shown in FIG. 1, the two electromagnets 15that have their north poles adjacent to block 5 are positioned above thetwo electromagnetic pistons 6. The electromagnetic piston on the righthas its north pole pointing toward head 3 and the piston on the left hasits south pole pointing toward head 3. Therefore, the piston on theright will be repelled and the piston on the left will be attractedtoward head 3. Thus, the left piston will rise in its cylinder and theright piston will move downward in its cylinder. This action will ofcourse turn the crankshaft thereby rotating gear 12 which in turnrotates head 3 through gear 14. In the next cycle the two electromagnetshaving their south poles oriented toward block 5 will be over thepistons and the pistons will move from their previous positions to thepositions shown in FIG. 1. Then the two electromagnets 15 having thenorth poles pointing toward block 5 will move over the pistons and thepistons will move to the position the reverse of that shown in FIG. 1.This cyclic operation of the pistons continues as head 3 turns and thusthe engine continues to run as long as all the electromagnets areenergized. The engine is stopped as soon as power is removed from theelectromagnets.

Voltage distributor l rotates with head 3 since it is attached. Asvoltage distributor 1 rotates the brushes 23 rotate on contacts 25 andcontinuously provide voltage to electromagnets 15. Similarly, the pistonbrushes 22 remain in contact with conductive strips 20 as the pistonsmove up and down in the cylinders. Conductive strip 20 runs the lengthof the cylinder. While the engine is running, motor 44 is energized toprovide cooling air to the engine.

From the foregoing, it is obvious that the engine is started and stoppedby applying the voltage to and removing the voltage from theelectromagnets, respectively. Of course, if the electromagnets 15 arenot properly positioned over the pistons, some starting means such as ahand crank or starting motor must be used. Any known means of turningthe crankshaft can be used, therefore no particular starter is shown inthe drawing. It should also be obvious that a starter can be eliminatedby using conventional indexing means to assure that the head magnets andpistons will be properly aligned upon stopping of the engine.

While no load is shown connected to the engine it should be obviousthat, power to drive a load would be taken off the crankshaft by, forexample, a conventional gearing arrangement. The power of the engine isdetermined by the size of the electromagnets and the magnitude of thevoltage applied to the electromagnets. Thus,the power of the engine canbe increased by increasing the size of the electromagnets or byincreasing the voltage or both. Of course a given electromagnet can onlyhandle so much current without destroying the electromagnet. Therefore,generally speaking, the size and/or electrical parameters of theelectromagnets will dictate the maximum voltage that can be used with agiven engine.

While the inventionhas been described with reference to a specificembodiment, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that variouschanges and modifications can be made to this specific embodimentwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An electromagnetic engine comprising:

a rotating head having electromagnets;

an engine block having cylinders and electromagnetic pistons in saidcylinders;

means to energize said electromagnets;

means to energize said electromagnetic pistons; and

means to rotate said head to position said electromagnets when energizedwith respect to said electromagnetic pistons when energized such thatsaid pistons are alternately moved up and down in said cylinders.

2. An engine as defined in claim 1 wherein said engine includes acrankshaft having a flywheel and said pistons are connected to saidcrankshaft.

3. An engine as defined in claim 2 wherein said engine includes a panattached to said block, said pan having a cooling fan positioned thereinand means are provided for energizing said cooling fan when said engineis running.

4. An engine as defined in claim 3 wherein said head rotates on a hollowshaft having electrical contacts, said shaft being affixed to saidengine block and extending upwardly through said block.

5. An engine as defined in claim 4 wherein said tacst with said cylinderconducti means for energizing said electromagnets includes a voltagedistributor mounted on said shaft and affixed to said head.

6. An engine as defined in claim 4 wherein said voltage distributorincludes a plurality of brushes in contact with said electrical contactson said shaft and means are provided for electrically connecting saidbrushes to said electromagnets.

7. An engine as defined in claim 5 wherein said means for energizingsaid electromagnetic pistons includes a plurality of conductive stripsmounted along the length of said cylinders and piston brushes inconengine as defined 1n cl iir i yilvherein each of said electromagneticpistons comprises: a wrist pin, a connecting rod connected to said wristpin and to said crankshaft, a plurality of brush holders to hold saidpiston brushes and a holder for a piston electromagnet, said holderbeing integrally fabricated with said wrist pin and brush holders suchthat said brush holders and wrist pin extend radially outward from saidpiston electromagnet holder.

9. An engine as defined in claim 8 wherein said cylinders arenon-circular.

10. An engine as defined in claim 9 wherein said connecting rod and saidwrist pin have self sealing bearings with cooling fins.

11. An engine as defined in claim 10 wherein channels are provided insaid engine block to cool said engine block and to permit air from saidcooling fan to reach said head.

12. An engine as defined in claim 11 wherein said rotating head isrotated by means of a gear train comprising a first gear mounted on saiddrive shaft, a

second gear rotatably mounted on said engine block and meshing with saidfirst gear and a third gear integrally fabricated into said head andmeshing with said second gear.

13. An engine as defined in claim 12 wherein said' pan has an electricalconnector for connecting to an external power source and means areprovided for connecting said pan contacts to said shaft contacts through

1. An electromagnetic engine comprising: a rotating head havingelectromagnets; an engine block having cylinders and electromagneticpistons in saiD cylinders; means to energize said electromagnets; meansto energize said electromagnetic pistons; and means to rotate said headto position said electromagnets when energized with respect to saidelectromagnetic pistons when energized such that said pistons arealternately moved up and down in said cylinders.
 2. An engine as definedin claim 1 wherein said engine includes a crankshaft having a flywheeland said pistons are connected to said crankshaft.
 3. An engine asdefined in claim 2 wherein said engine includes a pan attached to saidblock, said pan having a cooling fan positioned therein and means areprovided for energizing said cooling fan when said engine is running. 4.An engine as defined in claim 3 wherein said head rotates on a hollowshaft having electrical contacts, said shaft being affixed to saidengine block and extending upwardly through said block.
 5. An engine asdefined in claim 4 wherein said means for energizing said electromagnetsincludes a voltage distributor mounted on said shaft and affixed to saidhead.
 6. An engine as defined in claim 4 wherein said voltagedistributor includes a plurality of brushes in contact with saidelectrical contacts on said shaft and means are provided forelectrically connecting said brushes to said electromagnets.
 7. Anengine as defined in claim 5 wherein said means for energizing saidelectromagnetic pistons includes a plurality of conductive stripsmounted along the length of said cylinders and piston brushes in contactwith said cylinder conductive strips.
 8. An engine as defined in claim 7wherein each of said electromagnetic pistons comprises: a wrist pin, aconnecting rod connected to said wrist pin and to said crankshaft, aplurality of brush holders to hold said piston brushes and a holder fora piston electromagnet, said holder being integrally fabricated withsaid wrist pin and brush holders such that said brush holders and wristpin extend radially outward from said piston electromagnet holder.
 9. Anengine as defined in claim 8 wherein said cylinders are non-circular.10. An engine as defined in claim 9 wherein said connecting rod and saidwrist pin have self sealing bearings with cooling fins.
 11. An engine asdefined in claim 10 wherein channels are provided in said engine blockto cool said engine block and to permit air from said cooling fan toreach said head.
 12. An engine as defined in claim 11 wherein saidrotating head is rotated by means of a gear train comprising a firstgear mounted on said drive shaft, a second gear rotatably mounted onsaid engine block and meshing with said first gear and a third gearintegrally fabricated into said head and meshing with said second gear.13. An engine as defined in claim 12 wherein said pan has an electricalconnector for connecting to an external power source and means areprovided for connecting said pan contacts to said shaft contacts throughsaid hollow shaft.
 14. An engine as defined in claim 13 wherein saidcrankshaft has self sealing bearings.
 15. An engine as defined in claim14 wherein means are provied to transmit power from said pan contacts tosaid cylinder conductive strips and said piston brushes are electricallyconnected to said piston electromagnets.